Marsalforn scheme controversy still unsolved after two decades

A stretch of land at the popular holiday resort of Marsalforn, which was earmarked for development by the then Malta Environment Authority under the Road Scheme, is at the centre of a controversy with a planned street still unusable more than 20 years later.

The scheme provides for a new public road and building development. The proposed schemed road, named Sajjied Street, was designated so way back in 1989.

The hitch is that one end of the proposed road happens to be situated on privately owned land and apparently the owners had other plans for the land – development. And they did not stop there.

Gozo Hotels Company Ltd first built a gate and a wall and when this was served with an enforcement notice by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and subsequently earmarked for direct action, they removed the barrier and action by Mepa was lifted. However, they then build another wall in another part, which served the same purpose. The wall blocks the entrance to or exit from the planned Sajjied Street to or from Għar Qawqla Street.

The only open end of Sajjied Street is situated on the Xagħra Road end. The situation after so many years is that not all the street has been laid because of the obstacle and the only development is at the Xaghra Road end.

The unauthorised wall at the end of Sajjied Street was the subject of various enforcement orders by Mepa and the police. An application by the land owner to build on the disputed end of Sajjied Street has been turned down.

The stretch of road is parallel to Xagħra Road and Għar Qawqla Street, situated in the church area, and the part blocked by the wall lies behind the Calypso Hotel.

Residents and property owners are outraged at the closure, complaining the situation is causing them huge inconvenience. They also feel they are being deprived of their right to a decent road. Suffice to say that when on certain occasions Xaghra Road is closed for road works, traffic towards Xaghra Road heading for Sajjied Street would first have to go to Xaghra. This means that, instead of travelling a distance of just a few metres, residents would have to cover several kilometres via Xaghra to reach their road from the other side.

In addition, owners of land in the schemed road feel they are suffering an injustice. Earlier this year, land owners and residents sent a petition to Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino calling for Sajjied Street to be opened to the public and remarking that its closure was a nuisance.

Entrepreneur George Sacco, who many years ago had bought land in the area close to the barrier that had been installed but then removed, said the situation had been dragging on for too long and he strongly felt a grave injustice was being committed in his regard.

He insisted the situation in Sajjied Street was breaching a condition laid down in the Regulatory Plan that, when the permit was issued for building development, the road should be opened for public use.

“But I am being hindered from developing my property and, despite various complaints with Mepa, the situation drags on and on without any sign of it improving,” he said.

His land is situated in the part of the proposed street that is still undone and, as the situation stands, has no use at all.

In a letter to the Ombudsman, Mr Sacco’s lawyer wrote he was certain that by the time “universal judgment” arrives his client would be proved right but, as normally happened in life, his client was interested in seeing a solution to his complaint in a more reasonable time.